Only in 1792, after nearly thirty years, it began to gain deposits, but from that time they augmented very rapidly.

The banking history of England has been the same, though we have no country bank accounts in detail which go back so far.

But probably up to 1830 in England, or thereabouts, the main profit of banks was derived from the circulation, and for many years after that the deposits were treated as very minor matters, and the whole of so-called banking discussion turned on questions of circulation.

We are still living in the debris of that controversy, for, as I have so often said, people can hardly think of the structure of Lombard Street, except with reference to the paper currency and to the Act of 1844, which regulates it now.

The French are still in the same epoch of the subject.